Friday, 29 November 2013

It was over a year ago that another real passion of Jeni's began to leak into the Ravelry group, FOOD. After lots of chat on Twitter about the Sour Dough starter that she would be making, a Sour Dough along started in the Ravelry group, enabling baking and all kinds of chat about the perfect bready accompaniments.

It's back! Chatter picked up again thanks to a brilliant cookbook that we're recommending you add to your wishlist if you're a serious bread fan. Dan Lepard is a baking genius and his books have taught many of us on Team Fyberspates where it is at when it comes to baking techniques. They just work, every.single.time. So the book that's got us all chatting again? The Handmade Loaf.

Jeni popped back up on the thread last week and shared this picture of her potato bread bloomer made with a very different sourdough starter and got everyone back on the sourdough wagon- it's lush! Sour dough starters are a mixture of water, flour and natural yeasts which can last for years if kept fed and loved. It's what gives sourdough bread that distinctive twang and the name 'sour'.

This starter however uses raisins and yoghurt which makes for some pretty lively starter thanks to the natural yeast in raisins, and the yogurt adding bacteria and acidity. We can't share the recipe here due to copyright but we can urge you to grab a copy and get baking this holiday season.

Friday, 22 November 2013

Our Hand crafted Ceramic Yarn Bowls are made by the potter next door to our studio, the inside is glazed and the outside has hand drawn motifs. There is a little slit for your yarn to pull through if you want to use it as a Yarn guide. Each one is slightly different, and will have an irregular shape, and that's part of the charm!

Each bowl is roughly 9 cm/3.5 inches high and 17 cm/6.5 inches in Diameter, perfect for a 100g/4oz ball of yarn. These would be the perfect gift for the knitter in your life this Christmas (or just selfishly rewarding yourself for being fabulous.... ahem).

Wednesday, 20 November 2013

A few days ago noticed a high volume of Fyberspates Faery Wings 4ply flying out the shop like some kind of frenzy, only to discover the cause: The Boo Knits seasonal Mystery KAL! If you haven't discovered Boo Knits and are a lace fan, we'd highly recommend perusing her patterns.

Boo Knits personal motto is "Maximum Impact with Minimum Stress" and so aims to produce patterns that are quick to knit, easy to knit and yet look as though they really must be much more complicated! With the Boo Humbug Advent Scarf KAL, there is the promise of another fun but stunning knit.

The scarf has been designed as an ‘Advent shawl’. That does not mean that it is Christmassy, patchwork-like or a series of unrelated patterns lumped together but it flows beautifully and can be worn whatever the season depending on your chosen yarn. There is definitely no holly, berries, baubles, nativity scenes, reindeer or tinsel here - just a scarf for you to knit for you during the most giving season of the year. Just a little selfishness!

Designed with sport-weight in mind, the pattern affords enough flexibility that as long as you allow for your yardage and needles there is no reason why you could not knit it in a lighter, or even heavier, weight yarn. If you are following the pattern's suggestions for yarn, you will need 2 skeins of Fyberspates Faery Wings our 67% Silk, 23% Kid Mohair, and 10% Nylon base, 550 beads and size 3.75 mm, 4mm and 4.5mm needles. The pattern is charted and contains full written instructions.

The first clue will be released on 1st December - the biggest clue and the centre of your scarf. The following clues will be your pattern blocks, one for each end; these will be released on the 8th, 12th, 15th and the final clue will be out on 19th December giving you the opportunity to wear your new scarf on Christmas Day or be able to gift it to a loved one.

To join in the fun and get your copy of the pattern, click here and to purchase suitable yarn, please visit the shop which has just been restocked!

Saturday, 9 November 2013

Welcome to the Fyberspates leg of the Hitch Blog Tour! There's been lots of great posts so far and we've been pondering what angle we want to take with our post. While we were flipping though the pages, we were really struck by the number of finer weight yarns that are called for in this book so we decided to stick with what we knows best and talk about yarn.

'Hitch: Patterns Inspired by the Films of Alfred Hitchcock' by Stephannie Tallen is produced by Cooperative Press and contains 29 patterns ranging from men's knits to small accessories to ladies garments. It is available for direct download both on Ravelry as well as directly through Cooperative Press and retails for $16.95 USD or approx £10.87.In this dramatic collection, knitwear designers have taken inspiration from Hitchcock’s films to create some pretty film worthy knit wear. Whether you are planning a train ride to Mount Rushmore, a shopping excursion to a Bodega Bay bird shop, or simply a night peering out your rear window, this collection will keep you in the proper, stunning wardrobe for your Hitchcock adventures.

(c) Nick Murway

The Eleven Hundred Dollars Sweater, pictured above, is designed by Elanor King and is typical of the knits you will find in this classic looking book.The sweater is worked from the bottom up then moves on to some interesting construction methods. The waistband is worked in the round to the crossover, then the body is worked flat and splits into back and fronts at the armholes. The sleeves are worked flat, top-down. There is a good range of sizes 30- 54 inches and is knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious 4 Ply / Sport Superwash.Scrumptious 4 ply Sport is a 45% silk, 55% superwash merino base with 400 yds / 365m per 100g skein.

This is where we really started thinking about the yarns called for in this book as there's some fabulous yarn producers featured and it seems quite an honour to be included amongst them. The noticable thing though is that over 2/3rds of the patterns call for fingering weight yarn. This is because when drawing from fashion of this era as inspiration, there are certain design requirements that mean anything heavier than a sport weight yarn starts to look too modern as generally, 20s-50s knitwear was knit at a finer gauge.

Vintage knitwear has many benefits as a result of its lighter fabric: it's much more flattering due to less bulk and lasts longer from the lack of friction in everyday wear. This means that the slightly daunting yardage that is required to knit a whole garment starts to seem much more reasonable as you're doubling your knitting pleasure but also it will last far longer once complete. This durability was particularly important during an era that saw the Great Depression and two world wars that meant frugal garments were essential. Not only that, but knitting such small stitches means our mistakes are much harder to pick up on- hurrah!

(c) Nick Murray

This book is full of authentically styled pieces with all the benefits of modern designers creating the patterns. A call for finer weight yarns invariably leads to sock yarns which, like the Scrumptious 4 ply Sport, are machine washable. The designs themselves are updated too as typically waistbands of this era were worn a lot higher and foundation garments created a completely different shape for women compared to what you or I would typically wear now. The garments have been lengthened and sized accordingly and there's good schematics to help you chose the most flattering shape to really carry off such a classic style.

(c) Nick Murray

We've really enjoyed thinking about how our modern day expectations for knitting can be combined with classic knitwear and hope you'll enjoy knitting some of the wonderful patterns such as the beautiful colourwork Thorne Hill Cowl or the '3 Second Kiss' Sweater. You can find suitable yarns for these pieces in the Fyberspates shop by clicking on the 'Fingering/ 4ply' Section or 'Sport/ Heavy 4 ply'. You will find colour tones in stock that are particularly well suited to this era like this Rural Charm 4ply BFL Cashmere and Silk in 'Antique Velvet'

Rural Charm in Antique Velvet

We'd like to thank Cooperative Press, Stephanie and Elanor for giving us this opportunity to be part of the blog tour. Here are the next stops:

Friday, 8 November 2013

We had some yummy entries for our October KAL over on the Ravelry group and just had to share the results. It may have led to some serious enabling for all of us because the chatter about the different bases and knitting experience was very, very tempting! Isn't that what a KAL is all about though? Sharing our crafting experiences?

(c) Dominey

First up is Dominey's beaded Knit Night version. Dominey worked her shawl up using Rural Charm 4ply BFL Silk Chashmere, a really popular luxury base. This yarn is gorgeous as it has a wonderful texture, soft, but yet with the bounce of Blue Faced Leicester for a wonderful knitting experience. The colourway used here is called 'Tropical' and the beads she chose match the colourway perfectly. Great work Dominey!

(c) RachRoss

Then came RachRoss' version in Scrumptious 4ply 'Dandelion and Burdock' colourway. We love the pattern notes about how much this scarf grew with a good blocking- gotta love that 45% silk content!

(c) Yarn-Artz

Next up we have Yarn-Artz's Knit Night shawl that she knit in one weekend while holidaying on a narrow boat. How's that for a holiday souvenir? This version was worked up without beads but with eyelets on both sides of the scarf. We are loving how versatile Louise's pattern is! The yarn is Vivacious 4ply, our wonderful high twist Superwash Merino in the 'Mixed Magentas' colourway.

(c) YorkshireJules

YorkshireJules' version was another Knit Night without any beads but also wthout the eyelet borders too. We were particularly excited about this one as it was worked up using our latest Twizzle Silk base in the 'Rich Plum' colourway. Can you believe that this was a first attempt at knitting to a pattern, knitting with fingering weight yarn, and knitting on circulars? We couldn't either- well done YorkshireJules!

(c) Flowerpotsmum

Nipping in just in time for the deadline was Flowerpotsmum with her nonbeaded, no eyelet Knit Night shawl. This is another Twizzle Silk version in the 'Aubergine' colourway. We think the 70% Merino and 30% Silk Singles base is just perfect for squishy garter stitch projects that drape lovingly around your neck.

Want to be part of this month's parade? Come and join in our hat KAL. Go on, you know you want to!

We had some yummy entries for our October KAL over on the Ravelry group and just had to share the results. It may have led to some serious enabling for all of us because the chatter about the different bases and knitting experience was very, very tempting! Isn't that what a KAL is all about though? Sharing our crafting experiences?

(c) Dominey

First up is Dominey's beaded Knit Night version. Dominey worked her shawl up using Rural Charm 4ply BFL Silk Chashmere, a really popular luxury base. This yarn is gorgeous as it has a wonderful texture, soft, but yet with the bounce of Blue Faced Leicester for a wonderful knitting experience. The colourway used here is called 'Tropical' and the beads she chose match the colourway perfectly. Great work Dominey!

(c) RachRoss

Then came RachRoss' version in Scrumptious 4ply 'Dandelion and Burdock' colourway, part of the unique handdyes range. We love the pattern notes about how much this scarf grew with a good blocking- gotta love that silk content!

(c) Yarn-Artz

Next up we have Yarn-Artz's Knit Night shawl that she knit in one weekend while holidaying on a narrow boat. How's that for a holiday souvenir? This version was worked up without beads but with eyelets on both sides of the scarf. We are loving how versatile Louise's pattern is! The yarn is Vivacious 4ply, our wonderful high twist Superwash Merino in the 'Mixed Magentas' colourway.

(c) YorkshireJules

YorkshireJules' version was another Knit Night without any beads but also wthout the eyelet borders too. We were particularly excited about this one as it was worked up using our latest Twizzle Silk base in the 'Rich Plum' colourway. Can you believe that this was a first attempt at knitting to a pattern, knitting with fingering weight yarn, and knitting on circulars? We couldn't either- well done YorkshireJules!

(c) Flowerpotsmum

Nipping in just in time for the deadline was Flowerpotsmum with her nonbeaded, no eyelet Knit Night shawl. This is another Twizzle Silk version in the 'Aubergine' colourway. We think the 70% Merino and 30% Silk Singles base is just perfect for squishy garter stitch projects that drape lovingly around your neck.

Want to be part of this month's parade? Come and join in our hat KAL. Go on, you know you want to!